My obsession with Martha's Vineyard.. phototography.. life in general and this and that…

Category Archives: clothing

With the Taste Of The Vineyard Gourmet Stroll coming up on June 18 and The Taste Of The Vineyard’s Patron Dinner & Auction on June 20, 2015, I’d like to tell my story about the one and only time I went to this lovely and delicious event 22 years ago in 1993.

My daughter Deb and I decided to treat ourselves to The Taste of the Vineyard, we’d never gone before and it seemed like a fun and different thing to do. Off we went to the Vineyard for a glorious long weekend of eating, shopping and tasting. The weather turned brutally hot all along the Eastern seaboard, it verged on 100 degress which is unusual for mid June. A few hours before the Taste was to begin welcomed thunder storms rolled in and dropped the temps about 25 degrees. The evening was cool and clear and perfect.

We donned our new outfits and headed over to the grounds of the Preservation Trust which are located at the Dr Daniel Fisher house in Edgartown. The house is a beautiful Federal style home surrounded by lush gardens. It’s gorgeous.

We gingerly and hungrily entered the tents where all foods and drinks were on display. Lots of eager tasters were already there. We got our dishes and start wending through the crowds. We found seats and set about our tastings.

The tables were set with crisp white tablecloths.. in the middle of the tables were mounds of sand with seashells and rocks scattered about and a large hurricane lamp with candle sitting in the middle of the sand. Simple and tasteful, much like the occasion. The bite sized portions of appetizers and entrees were just satisfyingly enough. Had to leave room for the abundance of dessert samples after all.

But… the thing that mostly interested me was trying for the first time the Frozen Cappuccino from Espresso Love one of my most favorite places on MV. I returned to our table with my cup, eager to taste what smelled and looked delicious. I set it on the table… or at least I thought I had… but no, I had sort of placed it precariously near the edge and it landed in my daughters lap, almost the entire cup of cappuccino!!!!! On her new skirt !

(The part of the original skirt is now being portrayed by a stand-in)

Deb loved the skirt and had hoped to wear many, many times. I felt awful, I still do… it was an accident. I mean after all I myself had gotten a drop or two on my new shoes. We cleaned her up as best we could and I believe she went and got me a second cup of frozen cappuccino. I set it down on the table and… it hit the rocks and there before our eyes it oozed from the rocks and sand onto the table cloth. It looked like the tide had come in… it wasn’t pretty and it was embarrassing. Could it be that maybe the third time would work! I had to find out so off I went for the third cup of frozen cappuccino. I walked carefully back to the table, avoiding being bumped or nudged. I approached the table… Deb grimaced… I held the cup tightly in both hands… I bent to set it down… and… I did it, I made solid contact with table. I then raised the cup to my lips and actually got to taste the frozen cappuccino and I have to tell you… it was good, it was very very good, it was joy to my taste buds. I loved it and I still do, I try to have one at least once during every trip to MV. And of course I feel compelled to apologize each time to my daughter for her long lost beautiful skirt.

This blurry picture of the two of us was taken at the end of the evening. At least we’re laughing because no matter what, we always enjoy ourselves on the Vineyard.

I spotted this t-shirt in the window of a store in Edgartown about 20 years ago. I liked the cartoon depictions of MV landmarks and also the cute characters enjoying themselves. It seemed like a perfect shirt… I wanted it badly but alas it was around 8pm on an early May evening and the store was closed up tight. I obsessed on this shirt all evening… I could see it in my minds eye… the Flying Horses, the cliffs at Gay Head, Martha’s Vineyard spelled out in semaphore flags, the airport, the lighthouses, the ferries, the gingerbread houses… just about everything was there.

The next morning we got to the store just as it was opening. But wait, the t-shirt was not in the window… where was it ? We dashed inside and I explained to the ladies there that I had seen a certain t-shirt in the window less then 12 hours before and now it wasn’t there. They looked perplexed ! Neither of them knew what t-shirt I was talking about, they’d never seen a t-shirt like that before and would certainly have remembered such a different sort of shirt. I wondered if I’d entered the Twilight Zone ! They reiterated that it couldn’t have possibly have been in their window… they closed the store up the night before and had been the only ones working in the store all day ! I know my dreams are vivid but I didn’t think I was that good.

Oh well, as long as we were there we decided to browse. With a sigh I headed off to half-heartily look around. Cute stuff but… hold on a second, something caught my eye. It wasn’t even with the other t-shirts, it was mingled in with, I don’t remember what, all I knew was that I had found IT. I grabbed my prize and ran to show it to the ladies. They were stunned, they had never seen that t-shirt before !!!! So, I ask you, was it in the window the night before… did someone move it out of the window and onto a rack without their knowledge… is this story made up and… does the t-shirt exist for certain !!! Stay tuned to find out !!!!

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Here’s the shirt today, June 7, 2015. Owner of shirt wants to remain anonymous as it seems whoever, or whatever moved it in the store still might want to get its hands/fingers/claws on it.

Since I mentioned t-shirts in my last post I thought I’d carry the subject through to this post. Almost all of us collect t-shirts and I’m no different except that almost all of mine are from the Vineyard. They’re a good way to not only have memories of places but have new clothing as well….. when it comes time to have to get rid of them I sometimes take pictures of the ones I know I can’t replace.

These three are from events that I went to.Illumination Night in Oak Bluffs which takes place this year on Wed, Aug 20, 2014. The Harry Connick Jr/Carly Simon concert at the Tabernacle on Sep 16, 1990. And also at the Tabernacle, the Boston Pops on Aug 4, 2001.

This grouping is of places on MV. The Flying Horses in Oak Bluffs.Espresso Love in Edgartown. Midnight Farm store in Vineyard Haven. The old Tivoli building in Oak Bluffs. Black Dog t-shirts are very popular of course but this red BD shirt is from around 1987, which is before the well known image of the BD appeared.

Miscellaneous shirts including the Vineyardosaurus. A Chappy shirt because our dog is named Chappy. The “It’s A Vineyard Thing” shirt because well, with me everything becomes a Vineyard thing.

I like the MV map with all the towns shown on it. The black one because of the design and the word ‘Vineyard’ at the very end of the spiral.

As for the orange one… anyone know what the *a stands for ? For a long time you had to be in the ‘know’ to know it? Care to venture a guess ! 🙂

Unlike the above mentioned t-shirts, this t-shirt has a story. Okay, some of the others have stories too… but not quite like this one !